Beastmen Love

Astri and Claud are floating above a palette of blues and greens that stretch beyond imagination.

She could almost taste the salt in the air. Schools of iridescent fish danced around her, their scales reflecting the sunlight filtering through the water’s surface as they were letting a huge dark humpback whale appear in front of them.

A sense of tranquility washed over her even though such a big creature was in front of her. Claud knows the whale can not touch them, but unconsciously he holds her close to him.

"It’s all right. Can’t you feel he’s peaceful?" Astri asks Claud.

"I can.. Either way, you’re my mate and I will always question first before putting you at risk." Claud answers.

The whale starts to shift and then a pure white man with very long dark blue hair appears floating on the water. He can’t actually see them, but he can feel them.

"God of Nature? Are you there?" The whale beastman asks.

"Who are you? And why are you here?" Claud asks.

"... You’re not the God of Nature. I can sense you and another pure energy."

"I’m here too." Astri answers.

The whale beastman is impressed with the energy from her voice.

"God of Nature... Thank you for hearing my call."

"Why were you hiding from me?" Claud asks.

"Because I needed to talk with the God of Nature and not you."

"Next time you know, he’s my mate and you can talk to him too." Astri says.

"Fine... But only you can help us, Goddess. My people need your help." The whale beastman.

"First. My name is Astri. My mate here is Claud. What is your name?" Astri asks, not feeling comfortable with being called Goddess.

"Astri.. My name is Beau."

"Now explain why you need my help, Beau?"

Beau sighs and looks for a better way to explain.

"The Demon King visited our kingdom and corrupted many of our beastmen. The energies in our kingdom are too unbalanced and our Queen is dying. The evil energies are affecting her too much and she grew sick. I’m afraid she will die and our kingdom will be doomed without a leader. I traveled here to ask your help." Beau says.

"Where is your kingdom?" Claud asks.

"Around 150 days of travel."

Claud didn’t like to know that it was a very distant place. And how they’re going to travel on water for so long?

"I’m sorry for your Queen, but bringing Astri to your kingdom will be very dangerous. She can’t fly or swim for 150 days." Claud speaks.

"I understand, that’s why I came. I’m the strongest Guardian of Aquaterra. I have 20 marks and I can guarantee your protection." Beau says.

"I’m not worried about protection. What I worry about is how we will travel all that time. Astri won’t be going alone. Astri has 5 spouses, 12 guards, and young cubs that must be with her." Claud speaks.

"I understand. I brought the royal Aquaterran boats thinking she would need it. It can carry all of you." Beau says.

"Where are they?" Astri asks.

Beau dives and when he’s back, slowly two ships come to the surface.

They’re amazed by the Aquaterran submersible ship. It is a true wonder of engineering and design. This hybrid ship embodies the harmony between the aquatic and terrestrial realms.

The ships has a fusion of maritime aesthetics and underwater functionality, with a mix of living corals and rocks. Its streamlined shape is reminiscent of classic sailing ships, with tall masts that support billowing sails.

Astri is amazed at the high engineer they have.

"And before Claud asks. Aquaterrans also need to breathe air, so inside the ships are built to have air for a long time before going back to the surface to have more air. You will not drown." Beau says. freewebnσvel.cøm

"This looks amazing. I can’t wait to look at it closer!" Astri says. Beau smiles, happy to see that she feels safer now. "What about food storage? What kind of food do you have? Does the ship handle to have fire?" Astri starts to ask many questions that confuse Beau.

"Well... We eat fish, octopus, squids.. What do you mean by fire?"

Astri explains about cooking. Also about balanced meals. As she imagined, they have great engineers for the ships, but about eating habits it is very similar to normal beastmen. They eat it raw. There’s also the drinking water. Aquaterrans can shift and be hydrated with the seawater, but land beastmen can’t.

"I understand... That will be a problem." Beau sadly says.

"Don’t be sad. Give me some days and I’ll think about a solution. Don’t lose faith." Astri speaks.

Beau smiles softly and nods. He can’t see them, but he can imagine that Astri must have a very kind smile.

"Now. Can you tell me more about Aquaterra?" She asks.

——

Aquaterra is located in the middle of the ocean. They live in a big island called Verdant Isle that is connected to an undersea city called Coral Citadel. The Queen is a sea turtle, and she has several mates due to her hundreds of years of existence.

Claud is seeing the kingdom through Beau’s memories and it’s showing everything to Astri.

Rising majestically from the ocean’s surface, the Verdant Isle is Aquaterra’s primary landmass. Covered in lush vegetation, dense forests, and cascading waterfalls, the island is a testament of another beautiful creation from Nature. Terraced gardens and bamboo groves flourish, providing a bounty of fruits, vegetables, and herbs.

Astri is amazed.

"It looks like an amazing place, and your people look like good beastmen and don’t deserve being extinguished. Doesn’t the Queen have heirs?" Astri asks.

"She has many sons and one daughter, but the Princess is not of age yet and doesn’t carry the same wisdom to be Queen. The Princes can take the lead, but without the Queen, the whole people will be affected and it will turn into chaos. The Queen carries the balance of our energies." Beau explains.

"I understand. The image of a Queen is more than political. What the doctors say about her condition?" She keeps trying to find more details.

"They tried everything they know, but her skin is still growing darker and she’s still getting sicker and sicker. She was pregnant of her shark husband and she lost her litter too."

"I see. Did she ever get sick before?"

"Not like this. Not that I know of."

"How is her hygiene and eating habits?" Astri asks everything to try to see if there’s anything like a common disease, but she doesn’t find any clue as he keeps answering.

"It really looks like evil energies trying to corrupt her to become a Monster. Since she’s an ancient beast and has an elevated energy it will take a long time for her to be entirely corrupted." Claud says.

Claud is entirely sure that there’s no one like Astri and indeed she can help the Queen of Aquaterra, but since it’s a place that’s entirely new even to his eyes because it’s somewhere very far from the lands they live, he’s not sure about what kind of evil might be there.

If the Devil King tried to make his place there, it’s because he might be still around and once he discovers about Astri he will go after her.

"Give me some days, Beau. I’ll get in contact with you soon and try to bring up solutions, but know that we will probably need to change some things in your ships to make it work. Also, I will need to talk with my spouses. We also have responsibilities here and we’re also helping the King of these lands to get rid of corrupted people as well." Astri says.

"I understand." Beau speaks, feeling hope inside of him again.

"Take care. Talk to you soon."

She tries to go back and when she’s back, she feels her tired body and mind. Claud held her worried, but he imagined she would be exhausted. For the first time, she spent a lot of time connected.

Zin comes inside the bedroom to check up on them and panics when he sees her so tired.

"What happened?" Zin asks, worried, taking a pillow and putting it under her head.

"She made her first mind travel and stayed connected for a long time. She’s just tired." Claud says.

"Au.. What a headache. Why didn’t you tell me I would feel this?" She softly asks holding her eyes.

"Sorry. I ended up forgetting to warn since we were so focused on talking to Beau." Claud speaks and massages her head.

Zin massages her feet to help her relax too and soon Cyprian appears with the cubs to know why everyone is taking so long to come outside and finds them massaging Astri and she not looking well.

Astri had to stay down the rest of the day to rest and let that horrible migraine fade away.

At night, after dinner, and putting the cubs to sleep with Astri. Claud explains everything they discovered.

"How he could get in contact with her? Does he have powers or something?" Cyprian asks.

"I’m not sure. His people look like they have a different relationship with Nature than us. All of them know about Nature and their Queen is not like Astri, but has a role of balancing the energies of her people. She’s an ancient beast, a kind I only heard of that is the sea turtle. They can live 600 years or more. Beau is a whale and I never saw his kind. His beast form is big and as I saw in his memories most of them have big and dangerous beast forms but mostly in the sea." Claud says.

As more Claud explains, less his companions like about this.